Steve Dutch
Jul 28, 2017 · 1 min read

I think along these lines every time I read the snotty canard that “science is either physics or stamp collecting.” You’re either looking for grand fundamental laws or engaging in trivial cataloging of minutiae.

Except that, every time we try to apply science to actual problems, we run headlong into the lack of information. We don’t know, to within an order of magnitude, how many species live on the earth. Whenever we try to assess environmental impact on a site, we turn out to be utterly ignorant of its biology, geology and archaeology at the level needed to do a proper assessment. The “physics or stamp collecting” crowd act like stamp collectors who think they’ve seen it all and done it all by having a stamp on every other page of the album.

A recent “xkcd” comic stated it perfectly: “I’ll be honest. We physicists talk a big game about the theory of everything, but the truth is, we really don’t understand why ice skates work, how sand flows, or where the static charge comes from when you rub your hair with a balloon.”